Now that’s an Apple Pie!

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With a little help from a square springform pan, you too can have an Apple apple pie for dessert!

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We’re certainly not the first to put an Apple logo on a pie, but we think this implementation raises the bar a bit. Unlike a regular pie, you need to start with the top piece since you need to use the pan as a cookie cutter before you line it with dough. Roll out your dough for the top, and press springform frame onto it to get the right shape.

Put the dough on a piece of waxed paper for cutting.

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Using a lattice across the shape keeps it from deforming too much as it bakes. You can cut out the logo with a hobby knife or a carefully formed cookie cutter. We went alpha-geek on it and put it in the 45 watt carbon-dioxide laser.

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After removing the excess pieces, cover the top with waxed paper and refrigerate while preparing the rest of the pie.

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The steep square sides of the springform require a little extra dough and care. Your top piece probably didn’t use as much dough as a regular top, so you can add that to your bottom to make up the difference. To keep the dough from falling inwards before you add the apples, it helps to drape some dough over the edges of the pan.

After the apples are in, trim the dough evenly. Fold the edges inwards and press them down until they are level with the apples.

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The chilled top can be lowered onto the pie. Press the edges down onto the pie dough below. It’s ready for the oven!

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The fine lattice came out incredibly well with minimal breakage.

Full photo set on Flickr, here.

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Play with your food and tagged , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

48 thoughts on “Now that’s an Apple Pie!”

  2. I’d like you to consider a meat pie with a cutout on the top in the shape of a brain.

    BRAAAAAINS!

    As for myself, I will go off and consider the laserless state of my Thanksgiving dinner.

  7. Yeah, but what brand/breed of apples did they use? Did they use Macintosh?

    btw, the captcha really shouldn’t discriminate between "O" and "0". They are totally indistinguishable.

    1. ….you’ll get a nice brown crispy top, by brushing on some EGG WHITE onto the crust, before you bake it.

      1. You can get a shiny brown top to breads and pastries by mixing a little sugar and water together and brushing it on. I think salt and water too for breads. Not sure though!

      1. Mac Minis have grey edges and a white top. Apple TVs are grey. Time Capsules are all white. Somehow a deeply browned crust on top didn’t seem right for any of them, so I’m gonna stick by my decision to leave the egg wash off.

  10. Ah, lasers – is there anything they can’t do?

    Of course the apple logo only scratches the surface of the iceberg (ehrm…). The complexity of pie crust engraving and cutting is only limited by your imagination and patience.

    Want to bake a Valentine’s pie with a picture of you sweetie on top – done! Fractal air vents? Easy-peasy!

    Hm… now I wonder if you could actually *bake* a crust with a laser. You could definitely brown the surface at least. Maybe a fine grid of perforations to cook the inside of the crust? Place the crust on aluminum foil, so you get some power reflected up from below as well (or is that an absolute no-no, to avoid damage to the laser itself)?

    1. You could possibly direct the laser from an angle. And make sure there are no creases at all so that it doesn’t reflect back at the laser.

  11. Your innovative use of a high-powered laser in baking makes me ache with spleen and jealousy. You, sir (madame), are a god.

  15. That’s a really nice pie (can I suggest adding a trace of nutmeg to your cinnamon?), but, not being an Apple customer, I’d like to see that reiterated as the mathematical Pi symbol.

    (and why does the capcha get upset because “number zero” and “letter O” look the same?)

    1. An Apple Pi should be definitely be round, and Pi Pie has been done before (though maybe not with a laser). Just FYI, I used nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice in the filling, though I thought it best to leave the filling/pie dough recipes up to personal taste. As for me, I use the Best Recipe for both the crust and the filling. Those Cook’s Illustrated folks are pretty darned reliable.

  16. Whoa, that’s just an awesome idea to begin with, then you top it off by using a laser?!?!?!? You’re nuts! But also genius =)

    I love it.

  17. In the corner or around the boarder you should have 3.14159…, and so on, to truly make it and Apple pi :P

    1. An Apple apple pie isn’t good enough for you, eh? You have to have an Apple apple pi pie. I think the two are incompatible, as an apple pi pie should be round. But feel free to make your own!

    1. Are you sure about copyright of this image. I don’t see any violation. Normally in Internet we have seen many abuses of images without asking the ownership.
      Anyway I appreciate your words.

    2. Being that at the bottom of that page you linked (http://www.joemonster.org/art/10405/Pieczemy_jablecznik_dla_informatyka) there’s a message that says "Foto: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/" Sooo in other words that site you posted took the photos and stories from EMSL’s page not the other way around. I don’t see a problem at all anyway… So far I have seen 3 pages with this site linked as to where they found their information on the Mac apple pie and I wasn’t even searching for them!

  21. If we can call it like that, then i’m apple pie fan too! Now i remember those salad days then my mother used to bake tasty apple pies twice a week :P Great technology you have here, i wonder how this pie tastes..:)
    Thanks.

    1. i made this pie tonight (without a laser or a springform pan)-it worked pretty well. despite not having the lattice to support the cutout, it managed to hold it’s shape. used an 8×8 baking dish. i think you were wise to go square as well as to leave the egg wash off.

  25. Just had to post because I simply cannot believe that no-one’s yet said Pie-phone.

  26. nice blog,thanks for sharing this to us
    this is really very brilliant.
    good work
    keep it up..

  27. I was inspired to make this for a friend’s birthday, friend is a big Apple fan. Didn’t have the lattice on top had to cut it by hand, but the shaped held fairly well. Added some white icing to the top and dusted it with lustre powder for that Apple shiny factor. Came out very well, but stupidly forgot to take a photo! And because this was a pie to be served cold, we made some extra thick custard and the pie filling was half and half custard and spicy apples… YUMMY

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